Still here in Blaine, Washington

 

Sunday, August 08, 2010                                                                                                       Lorraine’s report

Hello again from 1000 Trails in Blaine, WA. As John Denver sang in his song, “Hey it’s good to be back home again”; and I have to say that I am loving being home again. Today the weather forecast is for more rain, high is supposed to be 64 degrees with the low down to 54 degrees. I have had to put on shoes/socks and jeans and a jacket in the evenings. The difference in weather from just a month ago is incredible, from burning up, with two air conditioners running day and night, just to make it bearable in the coach, to needing a jacket in the evenings.

Well, there’s not much to write about, other than we have been taking it easy, seeing lots of family and friends, and eating. We have seen Joe and Alice, friends. Joe started working with Chuck the same day 38 years ago; Joe retired five years earlier than Chuck and have a beautiful summer home here at Birch Bay. He and Alice spend the cold part year in warmer climates in their motor home.

We’ve gone to dinner at Northwood Casino with Tim, who showed us his beautiful new home in Lynden. We went to the $2.00 Tuesday buffet and had a great time catching up with him. He bought a new Bounder motor home and went south to meet us in Oregon last year.

Wednesday was my sister, Thelma’s birthday, and we went over to their home for hamburgers and hot dogs, and more catching up. I think we really missed each other!

I forgot, Monday morning Thelma and Ashley, Thelma’s daughter came by and off we went to the mall for a day of shopping. We all had a great time.

We took our daughter in law, Lora to dinner at Anger of the Wind Casino, for an all you can eat crab feed that evening. We enjoyed catching up with her what she has been doing.

Thursday was a stay at home day, cleaning, doing laundry and wrapping presents. We had errands and did that in the afternoon, coming home totally tired and happy to be staying in for the evening, our first since we have been back.

Friday was my birthday, and I spent the day getting food ready for my sister, Thelma’s and my birthday party on Saturday, with all her family. That evening Thelma/John, Chuck and I went to Silver Reef Casino for our free birthday buffet dinner, which was seafood and prime rib, with a delicious dessert. We all had a grand time.

Saturday, I finished making the various salads, gathering everything up and then we headed over to my sister’s home for the party. We all had a great time, in spite of it being a rainy day all day.

My niece, Kerri, her husband, Paul came with her three children, Rose, Patrick and Joshua; that was the first time we’ve seen them since we got back a week ago. The boys have sure grown, and Rose is as pretty as ever.

Thelma’s son John, with his son, Joey, and Joey’s mother, Michelle were there. Joey plays football for his high school, and is a big bruiser. Carl, Thelma’s youngest son as well as Ashley, the youngest girl was there; later on Paul, Ash’s boy friend came also.

There were 15 people there and I think everyone enjoyed a great day of eating, visiting and enjoying each other’s company. It was way to long coming!

I would like to send a big “Thank you” to all of my family and friends who wrote me on Facebook, or e-mailed me birthday wishes. I appreciate all of the good wishes and I miss those of you that aren’t with us now. Thank You!!!

This week I see my oncology doctor for my yearly exam. Sure hope it goes well. Thursday, we go for an eye exam, and I know I need new glasses.

So that’s it for now…Until next time….Be well.

Lorraine

 

8/8/10                                                                                                                                Chuck’s report

We have been busy all week but I don’t know what we have actually accomplished.  Seems like I just can’t get it in gear for some reason.  But it does feel good to have some down time with no pressing activities that have to get done right now.

We have been able to visit with family and friends almost every day since we’ve been here, most of the time over dinner.  That is about the only schedule we made and that was for their benefit more so than for ours, we are pretty flexible. 

Last Sunday we had a knock on the door, it was a member of the Lewis and Clark FMCA Chapter we joined in Oregon last year.  Sondy was parked next to us during that rally and we met her a few times.  This time, she had our complete attention and we got to know her much better, a very interesting person.  She invited us to attend the next rally in Chehalis, Washington later this month.  Not sure if we will be finished with our doctor visits in time to attend this rally but we sure would like to see the folks we met last year once again. 

Monday Lorraine, her sister Thelma and niece Ashley got together for a day’s shopping in town.  I used the time alone to do some cleaning in the motor home, washed/waxed the shower and put down new anti-skid pieces.  And I might have even checked the back of my eyelids for leaks for awhile too. 

Later we met our daughter-in-law, Lora, for a seafood buffet at a casino a few miles away.  We haven’t seen her in quite awhile and got caught up on what’s going on with her.  We were sorry to hear her mother isn’t doing too well right now and wish her well.

One item we want to do while we are here is to reduce the amount of “stuff” we are carrying with us and not using.  Tuesday we were able to go through some of our storage areas get rid of some stuff.  Later we met our friend Tim for another buffet at a local casino, this one costs all of $2.  They don’t have prime rib or anything like that but it was good and we definitely got enough.  We also stopped off at Tim’s house, first time we’ve seen his place.  Very nice, Tim.

Wednesday we stopped off at our old house to put some stuff in the barn.  The renters are wanting to put in Direct TV satellite service and the tech wanted to mount the antenna on the roof.  This would require putting 10 holes in the new roof and I said no.  So we compromised and they are putting a pole next to the house and I dug a trench for the cable.  No way did I want 10 lag bolts in the roof with as much rain as they get around here.  Sure wish someone would make an good offer and buy our house.

Later we did some running in town and afterwards went over to Thelma’s house for her birthday.  We had a good Bar-B-Q and another good visit.  Happy Birthday to Thelma. 

Thursday we once again headed into town for some more errands.  We got back to the coach and for the first time since we’ve been back, we had dinner alone. 

Friday was Lorraine’s birthday!  Happy Birthday Hon!  

We were busy around the coach and before I knew it, it was too late to take her out for breakfast so she cooked.  Lorraine also spent a lot of time getting stuff ready for their combined birthday party on Saturday.  (I did my usual good job of trying to stay out of her way.)  Later we picked up John/Thelma and went to yet another casino for yet another seafood buffet.  This casino gives everyone one free buffet for their birthday so we all got a coupon for our birthday, whenever it happens to fall.  I think the gals mostly ate crab while John tried a bit of almost everything and I had roast beef.  We all had a very good dinner and all for the price of the tip. 

Saturday we woke up to a rainy, cool day.  It’s been quite awhile since we’ve been in weather like this, the rains this past spring were mostly all thunderstorms and it rained hard and got it out of its system.  Here we just had the gentle rain that keeps everyone inside.  It rained or spit almost all day, the temperature never got above the mid 60s.  I still refused to give in and wear long pants but I was one of the few, we saw some folks wearing their heavy winter type coats.  Now that’s overkill, I think. 

We went over to John/Thelma’s for the sister’s combined birthday party.  We started out with too many snacks and drinks, then had dinner.  John fixed a roast with all the trimmings and everyone else made salads or something.  We once again had a good visit and a good meal. 

This is the first time we’ve seen their daughter Karri and her family since we’ve been back and it was good to see them.  Sorry Patrick if I picked on you too much.

After dinner we lounged around for awhile, then the gals opened their birthday presents, Lorraine even acted surprised to get her Black Hills Gold watch band that she had picked out in Rapid City.  Later we had cake and ice cream and then called it a day.  A Good day, I might add. 

The weather here has been really nice, high 70s, low high 50s until yesterday and today.  We had clouds and rain all day yesterday but just sprinkled today so far.  It’s expected to get into the 70s, maybe even 80s starting tomorrow. 

We didn’t do any traveling this week, a good thing.  We have to move to a different campground on Wednesday as we can’t stay here but two weeks in a row.  We will move just down the road to Beachwood.  Lorraine has already been in touch with some of our friends from Canada and they will be there the same time as we so let the party begin. 

Next weekend is the annual picnic for the refinery where I used to work.  They allow us retirees to attend, Lorraine and I will be there Friday afternoon, we aren’t sure about Saturday yet.  Looking forward to seeing the folks I used to work with and their families.  They have a chili cook off and a pie baking contest, I might just have to see about being a judge in one or both of them too.  Tough life, huh? 

Lorraine has her first doctor visit tomorrow, first of many for both of us.  I think the last doctor visit we have planned is on September 9th.  We haven’t planned much beyond that yet but I have made a couple of reservations for down South for the time we aren’t with our daughter and our grand daughter in California.  We have plans to go back to Laughlin, Nevada, Palm Springs, California and will make a reservation at Yuma, Arizona this week.  Boy I don’t like making plans that far in advance but to insure we have a spot - - -

So with that, I’ll add a few pictures.  As I said, we didn’t do any traveling so all the pictures will be of family and friends and I didn’t get pictures of all the folks we were with, sorry. 

 

Sondy of Lewis and Clark Chapter. 

John/Thelma’s table with snacks, I didn’t get a picture when the snacks were gone and the real food was on the table. 

 

Sisters together again.

 

John/Thelma and their children L – R Ashley, Carl, Karri, John, Thelma and John.

L – R  Rose, Josh, Paul, Kerri and Patrick.  Joey and his father John

Grandkids!  John, Joey, Rose, Josh, Patrick and Thelma.  Lorraine and me, I don’t like cameras. 

John made a birthday cake and I bought one. 

Two birthday cakes and their owners. 

And that’s all folks.  So until next week, have a good one unless you have other plans.  I know we will have a good one. 

Thanks   Chuck

We’re in Blaine, Washington

 

Sunday, August 01, 2010                                                                                                       Lorraine’s report

Hello from Blaine, WA. We’re home, and right now the temperature is in the mid 50’s. It’s so nice to be able to put on a sweater in the evening, and not be so sticky, hot from the humidity and high temperatures.

Last Sunday found us in Garryowen, MT. We were so close to Custer’s Last Stand Battlefield, and had wanted to tour it, but were told the coach was too big for the roads, with only a tiny turn around and no shoulders on the side of the road. We decided to just tour the Custer museum, and not chance the battlefield. Our car was still not running, so we were just towing it until we could get it to a Saturn dealer to fix it.

The Custer museum was small, but full of memorabilia from the battlefield and pictures. We watched the 45 minute movie on the battle; I didn’t realize there was a controversy going on over why the other troops didn’t come to Custer’s rescue when it was clearly proven that they could hear the battle going on.

Upon completing the museum, we headed out again, driving west to Anaconda, MT. There we found a nice RV Park called Fairmont RV Park. We pulled in set up and I cooked a nice dinner. After dinner, we walked over to the Fairmont Resort and checked out the swimming pools that are fed by the hot springs there. One pool was 102 degrees, another was 99 degrees and the outside pool was mid 90’s. It looked like a very nice resort, and it was very busy.

Monday morning we headed west again, making our way into Spokane, WA. The temperature was 105 degrees, very sunny, beautiful blue skies, mountains and trees. I didn’t realize I missed seeing trees.

Chuck had called the Saturn dealer in Spokane and they said to bring the Outlook in when we got to Spokane. We found the dealer to be in down town Spokane; and with their one way streets, it was challenging. Chuck managed and we arrived in time for them to look at it that afternoon. But the gal forgot to ask if we needed a rental car.

While he was dropping it off, I was calling a bunch of RV Parks to find a place for us to stay while they worked on it. I called 4-5 and they were either too small or sold out. I finally found one, Alderwood RV Park in Mead, WA, which was north of the city.

We were fortunate to get a spot, the guy there said there were only two left after the one we got.

We found the park, set up and I tried calling Enterprise for a rental car. They wanted from $69.00 to $129.00 a night for a rental. I asked about a discount for warranty work and they said the dealer usually set that up. So I hung up and called the Saturn dealer and asked why they didn’t take care of us. She said she didn’t know we needed one, but she forgot to ask. The earliest we could get a car was the next morning, since it was almost 5 o’clock.

The next morning Enterprise called and came and got Chuck to get a car. He came back and we took off to find a grocery store to restock the coach. We finished that and the Saturn dealer called and said the car was finished. They replaced the water pump, the oil needed changed, since it had gotten too hot and they checked everything else. We asked them to keep it since we still had more running to do.

When we finished our running, we went over to Northern Quest Casino. Chuck sat down by me and within five minutes, he was up. I played, but no luck for me. We stayed about another hour, then went and picked up the car. Everything was covered by warranty, except the oil change.

The next morning we left earlier, hoping to make it clear to Blaine, WA, Naco/TT. We had great weather for traveling. We made great time until we got to the mountains; where they had two Pilot cars keeping traffic slow for over ten miles where they were blasting or what ever they were doing. That slow down added an extra hour to travel time. We hit I 405 in Seattle at 3:00, I hoped it was enough time to get through before the rush hour traffic there in Seattle. It was.

We pulled into Blaine Naco/TT around 4:30, and did our usual set up routine. About 7or so, I called my sister and BIL, Thelma/John and asked them to meet us up the road for burgers. They did and then we came back to the coach for Paula Deen’s apple pie. We had a nice dinner, dessert and the start of good catching up time.

Since we have been here, we’ve been busy. We have to go through every compartment in the coach and purge. Then, we have all our doctor’s appointments, and throw in seeing all our family/friends and everything else with that, you know time will fly by.

We have seen my sister and BIL, Thelma & John, they had us for dinner Thursday; friends, Joe and Alice who had us over to their beautiful summer home, and then took us to dinner at Birch Bay. Yesterday we had Richard and Sandy, whose wedding we flew from Alaska last summer to Bellingham, to be in, over for B B Q. Two of their daughters, Crystal and her daughter Jazzy, and Kelsey came over to eat and visit with us. We’ve enjoyed seeing and catching up with everyone.

Just as I was writing this, a friend, Sondi, from the Lewis and Clark Chapter of Family Motor Coach Association, whose group that we joined last summer in Seaside, Oregon, recognized our coach and stopped by for a visit. We had a nice time talking and hopefully we will be able to go to the next Lewis and Clark rally in Chehalis, WA in September.

I would like to wish my sister, Thelma a very Happy Birthday on August 4^th. My birthday is the 6^th. Wow! time is sure flying by for us. It sure is nice to be back in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Until next time…………Lorraine

 

8/1/10                                                                                                                                    Chuck’s report

We finished our long trip West and are now settled in here at 1000 Trails (NACO) campground in Blaine.  We did a lot of miles in a short time at it was sure good to get back here. 

Last Sunday we traveled from Garryowen, Montana to Anaconda.  We found a nice campground and Lorraine fixed a nice fried chicken dinner, very good.  Later we walked (our car still wasn’t running) about 1/2 mile down the road to a Hot Springs.  Boy they have that place fixed up nice, a big resort with indoor hot water pools, three swimming pools inside and one outside.  We didn’t go swimming but walked in and checked the place out and didn’t smell any sulfur but did notice a chlorine smell.  Lorraine is very allergic to sulfur so this may be some hot spring water she could have gotten into, maybe next time. 

Next day we continued heading West.  I had done a bit of investigating and found there was still a Saturn dealer in Spokane.  So we called and made an appointment to have our car looked at there.  The dealer is in the middle of town so we found a place in front of them to park and disconnected the car.  They said they thought they might get a chance to check it out that afternoon and let us know what they found. 

We continued on to a campground North of town and got settled in for a couple of days.  We got a call from the Saturn dealer and they had already determined we in fact did have a bad water pump and they would order one to be delivered the next day.  Lorraine started working on getting a rental car for us and found out we should be able to get one covered under our car warranty but they didn’t have any Chevrolet cars left and that’s all the warranty would cover.  But they thought they might have one the next morning so we decided to wait and see. 

Next morning we worked out the details and got a rental car from Enterprise once again.  It sure is nice that they will pick you up and drop you off.  We took off to do some resupplying at a nearby Super Wal-Mart.  We got back and put stuff away before we decided to head out for some exploring and dinner. 

Lorraine found an Indian Casino we’ve visited before and plugged it into the GPS.  Just before we got there, we got a call from the Saturn dealer telling us our car was finished and we could pick it up.  YEA, some good news!  And I actually won at the Casino too.

We stopped to get our car and left our rental car at their lot, Enterprise would pick it up there, saving us from having to drive across town with two cars.  We got back to the coach and called some friends to see if we could meet with them for dinner, now that we had a car.  Unfortunately, they were busy and couldn’t see us with such a short notice, maybe next time Bill and Michele.

After driving our car around a bit and never seeing the temperature get hot, we agreed that we should hook it up to the motor home and continue on.  So next morning we did just that, heading West.  We had made reservations at 1000 Trails here in Blaine starting Thursday but we decided to make a longer drive and get in on Wednesday instead.  We hit the Seattle area at a pretty good time, not too much traffic.  We got here, got set up in one of the few sites they have that has 50 amp, water, sewer and a Southern exposure for our TV satellite antenna. 

Once we got set up, Lorraine called her sister and invited them to meet us for dinner at a local hamburger place.  They had already eaten but agreed to meet us for a visit anyway.  Lorraine usually calls her sister whenever we move so she has kept up with them pretty well but it was nice to have a good visit with Thelma and John.  After our dinner, they come by the coach for some apple pie we had picked up in Spokane and we continued our visit with them. 

One of the chores we have while we are here is to go through each compartment, cabinet and cubby hole and get rid of stuff we don’t need to be carrying with us.  So next morning, Lorraine started with the storage area under the bed.  She managed to weed out a few things and found some things we had forgotten we had, just like when we lived in a sticks and brick home.  We still have a lot more of that to do, hope to lighten up the load we carry with us.  But it seems every time we clean up a space, we manage to just fill it up with something else, just like in our sticks and brick. 

Later, we went over to John/Thelma’s house for a Bar-B-Q.  We were able to visit with their sons, John and Carl and their daughter Ashley too.  Another nice visit with them.

Friday morning we headed out for our blood draws in prep for our upcoming doctor visits.  Lorraine got hers done but I had forgotten that I needed to fast before giving blood so I will have to do mine on a later date.  Later we stopped at Fred Meyer, the bank and a furniture store.  We have been looking to replace the chair in our motor home with a recliner chair, probably a Lazy Boy.  So we checked out what was available and brought home some leather and cloth swatches to see what matches.  We will probably order one for pick up in Oregon later next month.  That will give them time to find or make one and have it ready for us to pick up on our way South.  And there is no sales tax in Oregon, another good reason to pick it up there. 

Afterwards, we went over to visit with Joe/Alice at their house.  We’ve known Joe/Alice for almost 40 years and have met with them in Arizona the last three winters.  Even thought they live here in the summer and we’ve been back here each summer since we started fulltiming, we just couldn’t work out a visit with them when we are here.  But this time we were able to have a very nice visit with them at their house.  We continued our visit over dinner at a restaurant at the beach and then back to our coach after dinner for some desert. 

Friday we called our friends Richard/Sandy to see what they had going this weekend.  This is the couple we stood up for at their wedding last year.  They were available to come by and see us on Saturday so Lorraine planned for their visit.  She fixed some snacks and got everything ready for a hamburger/hot dog Bar-B-Q.  They got here about 3:00 and two of their daughters and one of their grand daughters also were able to get here about 5:00.  So we had a time and good visit with these fine friends too. 

I think this is what Lorraine was wanting, visiting with family and friends.  She really has enjoyed our time here even though we’ve been pretty busy.  We have some doctor appointments this week, need to get our eye exams and order glasses.  We have many more friends in the area we need to contact and visit.  The refinery where I worked had their annual picnic in a couple of week and we may try to attend that to see some of my prior co-workers and their families.  So it will continue to be busy for us but a good kind of busy. 

The past few weeks have been pretty hot and humid during our travels.  We had a number of days that the humidity matched the temperature, 95 and 95.  There were lots of thunder storms in the afternoon/evenings too.  On Wednesday when we got here, the temperature was about 80 and it cooled off to the high 50s at night.  The last two days have been cloudy in the morning, this morning it’s pretty cool, almost need to wear long pants vs shorts but I’m not ready to give in to that. 

We are able to stay at this park for two weeks, then we will move over to Beachwood, a campground about 3 miles away.  We have some friends from Canada that will hopefully be there too and we will be able to visit with them too.  We will stay there two weeks then move back here to 1000 Trails for another two weeks before heading South once again.  That puts us back on the road after Labor day, a long stay in one area for us.  I’m sure by then we will be ready to get the wheels rolling again and move on to different places.

So for now, that’s it.  I’ll add some pictures and get this posted.  Oh, oh, after looking at our pictures, I see we didn’t get any pictures of John/Thelma and their family or of Joe/Alice.  I guess we were just too busy visiting to take pictures.  But we will be seeing them again while we are here so maybe I’ll have pictures of them later.  

Some pictures while traveling in South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.  Lots of open land in the West. 

The picture on the right is a good sized strip mine. 

Lots of classic car shows across America, we see lots of cars being towed.  That’s the Rockies on the right.

Notice the snow fence on the right.

Coeur D’Alene Lake in Idaho. 

 

This is Spokane, Washington, hot and dry.  Yea, it reads 105F, way too hot for us but at least the humidity is low.

Back on the road in Eastern Washington, they don’t get much rain here. 

 

The Columbia River in Eastern Washington. 

Ok. starting to see some trees in the Cascade Mountains, and the temperature is cooling off too. 

Jasmine, Crystal and Kelsey. 

Lorraine and Jazzy, Sandy (who hates having her picture taken) and Richard. 

Think I’ll close out now and get this posted.  Hope you had a good week and were able to see your family and friends too. 

Thanks   Chuck